MTB Atlanta Receives $1M+ Grant for Trail Building Projects

Eight shovel-ready trail projects in metro Atlanta have been funded thanks to a large donation from Chestnut Family Foundation.

By Jeff Barber
November 23, 2022 Last Updated: November 23, 2022

13 comments

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South Rockdale Park file photo by Leah Barber

The Chestnut Family Foundation has pledged over $1M in support of trail development in eight metro Atlanta parks totaling 23.7 miles of new singletrack and bike facilities. MTB Atlanta Executive Director Brett Davidson said, “The demand for multi-use trails in Atlanta is at an all-time high in the wake of the Covid19 pandemic, and the commitment made by the Chestnut Family Foundation has moved every shovel ready project we have in development into construction.”

Allatoona Creek Park file photo by Jeff Barber.

Among the trail projects being funded, the Butner Road Training Facility will be developed in partnership with the Georgia Cycling Association and Bearings Bike Works to provide a training facility for high school coaches and student athletes. Allatoona Creek, Moore’s Bridge, Chattahoochee Bend, and South Rockdale parks will see new trails added while a new expert-level trail is planned for Quarry’s Edge Park south of Atlanta. Wasting no time, that project will begin construction next month, and in January work will begin on the trails at Butner Road.

In addition to natural surface trails, a hard surface Velosolutions pump track will be funded in Cobb county.

The Chestnut Family Foundation was founded by Teresa and Ben Chestnut and is dedicated to improving the lives of children. Ben Chestnut is the billionaire co-founder of Mailchimp, an email marketing company based in Atlanta.

Moore’s Bridge Trails file photo by Jeff Barber.

MTB Atlanta is a chapter of the non-profit Southern Off Road Bicycle Association (SORBA) and manages 160 miles of trails spread across 29 parks located throughout metro Atlanta. The group operates its own professional trail building crew known as MTB Atlanta Pro Trails.

“This single donation will move all of these projects to completion and the award will make a huge impact on the landscape of mountain biking and outdoor recreation in Metro Atlanta for generations to come,” said Davidson.

13 Comments

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mchlc Georgia // 2020
Dec 1, 2022

More flat trails for $1 million is sad. There should be progressive lines built on public lands in the northern GA area. Bring that money and show the state you have it and they’d more than welcome that support for trails in state parks with actual elevation. Sad to see nothing like that is happening with that money.

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Jeff Barber Georgia // 1998
Dec 1, 2022

Hmm... the saying don't look a gift horse in the mouth seems appropriate given a couple of the comments here.

2010tundra Georgia // 2015
Nov 23, 2022

Sure would be nice to get some new trails in Gwinnett County!

Jeff Barber Georgia // 1998
Nov 23, 2022

Agreed. Gwinnett does have a couple good trail networks at parks like Harbins, but also a ton of opportunity to add singletrack at parks like Pinckneyville. Hopefully now that Gwinnett SORBA has merged into MTB Atlanta we'll see things start to move.

Wrenchcat Georgia // 2012
Nov 24, 2022

In fact the opposite has happened at Harkins. Nearly half of the trails are gone or inaccessible because the county built an over engineered, little used paved connector trail to Tribble Mill.

Yeah but that was done at least two years ago and there's really no one in Gwinnett MTB that is promoting new trails, at least not when I was a member. The people in office in Gwinnett county aren't interested in building new mtb trails unfortunately. They're more concerned about paved paths.

That should be "Harbins" Auto correct is the devil. Also, surprised there's no edit function here. :shrug:

That's a shame. The county definitely invests a lot of $$ into parks, sounds like they need convincing that residents want MTB trails.

When I was in the club a few years ago, we tried. We went to several meetings with Gwinnett County and even got put on some design committee, but it accomplished nothing. The current administration has their minds set on just building parks with paved paths, and not interested in hearing about mountain biking.

Sunspot Colorado // 2019
Nov 24, 2022

Sad state of affairs. Hope to hear of changes in admin to solve the problem at its source.

cdoane Georgia // 2022
Nov 24, 2022

Progress is being made in Gwinnett. MTB Atlanta didn’t inherit much of a relationship with Gwinnett when entering the county but there’s been some recent changes that we think will help. MTB Atlanta has also scouted several new trail ops in the area that are not under Gwinnett’s jurisdiction. We simply need to get these projects to a shovel ready status (time to dig) and pursue funding.

😞

2010tundra Georgia // 2015
Nov 28, 2022

Yes, there was a less than ideal relationship between Gwinnett County and MTB Gwinnett "leadership" and realistically, Gwinnett County is not likely to ever seriously entertain the idea of building true singletrack mtb trails on any of it's properties, which is a real shame because there is potential for new and improved trails.

It's good to hear that new potential sites have been identified via MTB Atlanta and hopefully something can come of that. Perhaps someone should speak with Seth from Seth's Bike Hacks about how the process worked for Berm Park in Canton, NC and apply that information to new trails in Gwinnett?

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